| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
| <<Plin. Nat. 7.20 | Plin. Nat. 7.21 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 7.22 |
Instances of acuteness of sight are to be found stated, which, indeed, exceed all belief. Cicero informs us, [Note] that the Iliad of Homer was written on a piece of parchment so small as to be enclosed in a nut-shell. He makes mention also of a man who could distinguish objects at a distance of one hundred and thirty-five miles. [Note] M. Varro says, that the name of this man was Strabo; and that, during the Punic war, from Lilybæum, the promontory of Sicily, he was in the habit of seeing the fleet come out of the harbour of Carthage, and could even count the number of the vessels. [Note] Callicrates [Note] used to carve ants and
other small animals in ivory, so minute in size, that other persons were unable to distinguish their individual parts. Myrmecides [Note] also was famous in the same line; [Note] this man made, of similar material, a chariot drawn by four horses, which a fly could cover with its wings; as well as a ship which might be covered by the wings of a tiny bee. [Note]
| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
| <<Plin. Nat. 7.20 | Plin. Nat. 7.21 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 7.22 |
